An engineer Is implementing a data migration scenario for a customer who has multiple FC LUNs across multiple third-party SAN arrays. The engineer…

The defining mechanism of the Foreign LUN Import (FLI) process is that the destination NetApp ONTAP cluster initiates the connection to the third-party source array to read the LUN data. To act as a client to the foreign storage array, the ONTAP cluster must have at least one Fibre Channel (FC) port configured in initiator mode. This configuration is the specific enabler that allows ONTAP to discover the foreign LUNs and perform the block-level data copy, which is the core "import" function of the FLI feature.

A. A valid SnapMirror license: FLI is a built-in feature for migrating from third-party arrays and does not require a SnapMirror license, which is for NetApp-to-NetApp replication.

C. A valid NetApp XCP license: NetApp XCP is a host-based software tool designed for migrating file-based (NAS) data, such as NFS or SMB shares, not for block-based (SAN) LUNs.

D. At least one FC port in target mode: While target ports are also required to serve the LUN to the host and provide non-disruptive access during migration, the initiator port is the unique requirement that enables the array-to-array data import that characterizes the FLI process itself.

1. NetApp Technical Report 4052

"LUN Migration to Clustered Data ONTAP Using Foreign LUN Import": In Section 3.1

"Prerequisites

" the report states

"The destination ONTAP cluster must have FC initiator ports available to connect to the foreign storage array." This is listed as a primary requirement for the FLI process.

2. ONTAP 9 SAN Administration Guide: In the section "Requirements for importing a foreign LUN

" the documentation explicitly lists as a prerequisite: "You must have FC initiator ports on the destination cluster nodes that will own the imported LUNs." This confirms that initiator ports are a mandatory component for the FLI functionality.

3. ONTAP 9 Commands: Manual Page Reference

lun import create: The command to start the import process requires a -foreign-disk parameter. For the ONTAP cluster to see the foreign disk and its UID

it must first discover it by scanning the SAN fabric using its initiator ports connected to the source array.